Programme note
Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971)
Pulcinella Suite
Sinfonia (Overture): Allegro moderato
Serenata: Larghetto -
Scherzino - Allegro - Andantino -
Tarantella -
Toccata: Allegro
Gavotta con due variazioni: Allegro moderato
Vivo
Minuetto: molto moderato -
Finale: allegro assai
The most significant developments in musical history are not necessarily inspired by the most significant composers - or even by composers at all. The neo-classical taste, which had a strong influence on music for twenty years or more, was formed as much by Diaghilev, ballet impresario and no musician, as any one else. It was he who sensed how public taste would change after the first world war, and it was he who commissioned Tommasini to arrange Scarlatti's music for The Good-Humoured Ladies, Respighi to arrange Rossini's for La Boutique Fantasque, and Stravinsky to arrange Pergolesi's for Pulcinella. With choreography by Massine for all three ballets and designs by (respectively) Baskt, Derain, and Picasso they could scarcely fail to arouse the interest of the public.
As for Stravinsky, he would surely not have thought of creating a ballet score from music by (or attributed to) Pergolesi if Diaghilev had not asked him. He provided Stravinsky with the Pegolesi scores and with an early eighteenth-century comic libretto, based on the commedia dell'arte character of Pulcinella, to go with them. The several months of concentrated work on Pergolesi in 1919 and 1920 had a profound influence on Stravinsky and on the development of his music up to The Rake's Progress and beyond. Pulcinella was, he said, "my discovery of the past". The instrumentation of the ballet is an indication of how much he had absorbed even at this stage - no clarinets, not one of the percus¬sion instruments so prominent in his wartime scores, the strings divided in concerto grosso style into concertino and ripieno groups. The sound he wanted is no pastiche, however, even if some of his methods are characteristically eighteenth-century. The Overture is a delightful example of Stravinsky's use of the neo¬classical orchestra, with blocks of tutti sound alternating with a series of differently coloured solo groups.
In the ballet the curtain rises on a Neapolitan serenade from Pergolesi's II Flamino, sung by a tenor in the orchestra pit. In the suite, the principal vocalists are solo oboe and violin, set against a remarkably delicate and nocturnal texture of strings and wind harmonics, trills, and repeated notes. The Scherzino accompanies a scuffle on the stage between the two unwelcome serenaders, Florindo and Coviello, and the father of one of the ladies. It leads directly into the Allegro, to which Pulcinella enters playing a virtuoso violin. The violin solo, which is Stravinsky's addition to the Pergolesi original, succeeds where the serenade failed and attracts the two ladies (Prudenza and Rosetta) out into the street where, in the Andantino, they make amorous advances to Pulcinella.
The middle part of the ballet, in which Pulcinella is apparently killed by his two rivals, is omitted from the suite. The next movement, the Tarantella, in which the apparently dead Pulcinella is brought back to life, must have been comparatively easy for Stravinsky to arrange, since it comes from a work for string orchestra. The Toccata, on the other hand, is a brilliant realisation of a harpsichord piece. Similarly, the Gavotte and the two variations, in which the two ladies dance with the two lovers only because both the latter are disguised as Pulcinella, is a highly imaginative and attractive rescoring for wind instruments of what was originally harpsichord music. The section marked vivo is from a sinfonia for cello and double bass. Stravinsky retains the solo double bass but pairs it with a loud trombone, which is both witty and dramatically effective - for this is the scene in which Pulcinella gets his own back on Florindo and Coviella by ducking them in the fountain.
However, all the problems are settled in the Minuetto, which comes from the opera Lo Frate Innamorato and is obviously a song rather than a dance. Florindo and Coviello are united with Prudenza and Rosetta, and Pulcinella is reunited with his own Pimpinella - to the general rejoicing indicated in the racy Finale.
© Gerald Larner
